Israeli ambassador praises wartime pope

(RNS) In a conciliatory gesture regarding one of the most sensitive
points of Jewish-Catholic relations, Israel's ambassador to the Vatican
praised the controversial wartime Pope Pius XII for his "actions to save
the Jews" during the Holocaust.

Mordechay Lewy made his remarks Thursday (June 23) at a ceremony
honoring an Italian priest who helped protect Jews during the Nazi
occupation of Rome. The ambassador said many Catholic institutions in
the city had hidden Jews from the Germans during mass arrests on October
16, 1943.

"There is reason to believe that this happened under the supervision
of the highest Vatican officials, who were informed about" steps to
protect Jews, Lewy said, according to the Reuters news agency.